Paul B. Mello

Partner

Paul represents public and private sector clients in high stakes litigation, including putative and certified wage and hour, misclassification, harassment, and discrimination class actions. His practice focuses on complex employment litigation, and he has significant experience in all aspects of the transportation industry. Paul’s practice also includes providing compliance advice and counseling on employment law and transportation law issues. He has handled a wide variety of individual and multi-plaintiff cases in federal and state court including race, sex, disability, and age discrimination suits, as well as breach of employment contract, wrongful termination, fraud, defamation, whistle-blower, wage and hour and other employment-related litigation.

Paul also represents public and private sector clients in administrative actions and/or investigations before or by the Occupational Safety and Health Appeals Board (DOSH actions), the California Division of Labor Standards Enforcement (DLSE), the Office of the Labor Commissioner, and the United States Department of Labor (DOL).

Paul frequently counsels employers and management in litigation prevention and compliance issues including leave of absence, accommodation of disabilities, wage and hour, employee discipline and termination, internal investigations, personnel policy issues, and reductions in force. Paul has extensive experience assisting clients concerning employment law issues that regularly present during the merger and acquisition process. He also routinely negotiates and drafts employment, independent contractor, and severance agreements for his clients.

In addition, Paul represents public sector clients in putative and certified class actions relating to the delivery of health care and programs to persons incarcerated in or paroled from state correctional facilities. Paul also assists public sector clients in putative and certified class action litigation alleging police department wrongdoing.

Plata v. Brown. Paul is currently co-counsel with the California Attorney General's office in the Plata v. Brown case. Plata is a class action case against the State of California, including the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR), concerning the delivery of medical care to California's adult inmate population.

Valdivia v. Brown andL.H. v. Brown. Paul was lead counsel for the State in the Valdivia v. Brown and L.H. v. Brown cases. Paul successfully argued for decertification of the class and the termination of the Valdivia case, a nineteen-year-old class action case that was brought against the State of California challenging the constitutionality of California’s adult parole revocation processes. Paul was also lead counsel in the L.H. v. Brown case and orchestrated the termination of the L.H. class action which challenged the parole revocation processes for juvenile offenders in California.

California Furlough Litigation. Paul was co-counsel for the State of California in consolidated litigation relating to California’s 2010-2011 budget impasse and the California Department of Personnel Administration’s implementation of the Governor’s furlough program.

Ranjan v. Patni Computer Systems, Ltd. et al. Paul represented Patni Computer Systems, Ltd., Patni Telecom Solutions, Inc., and iGATE, Inc., in an employment law action alleging, among other things, breach of contract, declaratory relief, intentional misrepresentation, as well as a separate cause of action for interference with a contract against iGATE. Defendants filed a motion to dismiss plaintiff’s complaint based upon a forum selection clause. The Alameda County Superior Court granted defendants’ motion to dismiss, finding the parties’ forum selection clause was enforceable and thus, that it was reasonable for plaintiff to litigate his claims in the High Court of Bombay, India.

Allen, et al. v. City of Oakland, et al. In September 2012, Paul was retained as co-counsel, along with the City of Oakland's City Attorney's office, in this civil rights class action case involving allegations of police misconduct against the City's Police Department. Defense counsel successfully defended against placement of the Police Department into Receivership. Instead, the Federal Court appointed a Compliance Director to assist the City in attaining substantial compliance with the parties' Negotiated Settlement Agreement.

Publications

"Defusing the Misclassification Risk: The Broker Model What it is and How it Works," co-author, The Transportation Lawyer (October 2018)